I'm going to describe my cousin Teresa, who's thirty-six and lives in Davao City, in the Philippines. She made quite a dramatic career change about four years ago.
For almost ten years she worked as a corporate lawyer at a firm in Manila. It was a well-paid, respected job, and our family was incredibly proud of her. She dealt mostly with contracts for property companies, and she often worked until midnight, including weekends.
Now she runs a small bakery and café in Davao that specialises in bread made with local ingredients like cassava and coconut flour. She employs six people, most of them young women from her neighbourhood, and she trains them herself. She still uses some of her legal knowledge, mainly for her own contracts with suppliers, but she spends most mornings covered in flour.
There were a few reasons she decided to change. The main one, she says, is that she reached a point where she couldn't remember the last time she'd enjoyed a working day. She'd started baking at weekends as a way to relax, and she noticed she was happiest when she was giving bread away to friends. Then her mother got ill, and she wanted to move back home to Davao to be closer. That gave her the push she needed.
It wasn't easy. She took a big pay cut, and some relatives thought she'd thrown away her education. But she'd saved carefully for years, and she did a short business course before quitting. I really admire that she planned it rather than just walking out. Seeing her now, she's clearly much happier, and honestly, her bread is excellent.